Manual of Style
The Sacred Scrolls Manual of Style serves as a useful guideline towards formatting article pages and maintaining consistency throughout the database. This page is largely based on the policies from the Manual of Style guidelines used at Wikipedia Naming conventions The title of an article should always be the most commonly used name associated with it. For instance, an article about San Francisco, California is titled simply, San Francisco. Avoid using descriptors such as "The" or "An" at the beginning of a title. In instances where such expressions are required in order to properly describe an article, place them at the end of a page name following a coma. Example: Planet of the Apes, The. Avoid using official titles or military ranks when naming characters (Doctor, General, Governor etc). If a character is only known by one name, such as Governor Breck, then the title of the page should be Breck. This helps to correctly alphabetize articles during the categorization process. In situations where article names can be used to describe more than one page, the article itself will become a disambiguation page. For instance, Zaius could refer to several different characters depending upon which resource the reader is drawing upon. In such cases, an additional descriptor should be added to the page title to distinguish it from other pages. Common examples found in this database would include: * Zaius (APJ) * Zaius (TB) * Zaius (TV series) * Zaius (Animated) * Zaius (UbiSoft) The acronym APJ refers to Arthur P. Jacobs, the producer of the original five POTA movies. Unless an article does not share an analog with a differing continuity, all pages relating to the original five films should include “APJ” (in parenthesis) at the end of the page name. If an article can only be found from one specified source, such as Otto Hasslein, then no additional qualifiers are required. The acronym TB refers to Tim Burton, the director of the 2001 Planet of the Apes remake film. Similarly, all article pages that are unique to the continuity established by the Tim Burton timeline should contain the "TB" qualifier (again in parenthesis) at the end of the page name. This also includes spin-off materials such as novels and comic books. The acronym CE refers to Chernin Entertainment, the producer of the 2011 film Rise of the Planet of the Apes and (presumably, at this stage) any sequels. All article pages that are unique to the continuity established by the Rise of the Planet of the Apes timeline should contain the "CE" qualifier (in parenthesis) at the end of the page name, including spin-off materials such as novels and comic books. In a situation where an article can pertain to more than one source, but remains within a single continuity, use Roman numerals to distinguish between pages. For example, there are two characters named Cornelius in the APJ films. The article page Cornelius should function as a disambiguation page, referencing all characters that may fall under that name. Cornelius I refers to the character played by Roddy McDowall as seen in all five of the APJ movies. Cornelius II refers to the son of Caesar as played by Bobby Porter in Battle for the Planet of the Apes. Categorizing When possible, try to avoid redundant categorization. If an article falls within a subcategory, then it is not necessary to include the parent category as well. An article that is categorized as Category:Humans automatically pipes to the parent Category:Characters category. However, many articles will doubtlessly belong to more than one sub-category, so feel free to include all subcategories that apply to the page in question. Writing Style All articles should be written in a narrative style using a neutral point of view (NPOV). A neutral point of view reads like an article from a newspaper, and should not convey any sense of bias or personal opinion. Tense All articles should be written in the past tense, with only a few exceptions. Maintaining articles in the past tense provides a consistent narrative flow and represents a body of work that has been pieced together over the course of time. Even though many elements of the Planet of the Apes mythos take place in the far-flung future, they should still be regarded as the historical past (from the editor's perspective). However, summaries that describe the major plot points from either the movies, comic books, novels or television episodes should be written in the present tense. In-Universe The main body text of an article should be written from an in-universe perspective. This applies primarily to the Biography sections of character pages and to plot summaries. Essentially, an author should perceive himself as if he were an historian living in the reality of the Planet of the Apes. An editor writing a biography on Cornelius would not include references to Roddy McDowell in the biography section, as she would be unaware that Cornelius is actually just an actor playing a role. Alternatively, out-of-universe or "real-world" perspectives may be applied to other sections of the article. Information pertaining to the behind-the-scenes production can be described in either the Notes or Trivia section of certain pages. ---- Category:Administration